


The Force Physics Lectures

by Maharani_Radha



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: A Chemist Tries to Explain Physics, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Eventual Romance, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Humor, Kylo Ren Has Issues, Kylo Ren Has No Chill, Kylo Ren Needs a Hug, Let's see how this goes, Millicent the cat - Freeform, Physics, Romance, Slow Burn, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Supreme Leader Kylo Ren
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-21
Updated: 2020-04-07
Packaged: 2021-02-23 07:09:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23240920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maharani_Radha/pseuds/Maharani_Radha
Summary: You are a brilliant professor of theoretical physics at a prestigious university on Earth. Ever since Earth was annexed by the First Order, you've made it your life's goal to understand the fundamental physics behind the mysterious entity that is the Force. You have no time for your soulmate--you have no desire to meet them. Your soulmate would be nothing more than an unwelcome distraction from your important research.That is, until you find out that your soulmate is none other than the Supreme Leader himself, Kylo Ren. He has spent many years denying your existence, and now that he has met you, he's not prepared to let you go that easily.
Relationships: Ben Solo | Kylo Ren/You, Kylo Ren/Reader, Kylo Ren/You
Comments: 48
Kudos: 130





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, okay. So I should probably be working on More Than Just Binary, BUT I have been quarantined, so...I have plenty of time on my hands to work on two fics. This is another plot bunny I have had for a while, and once again, I've put pen to paper. This will be more "plotty" and more philosophical (if that's the word?) than the MTJB, but I figured it might be fun to be able to switch gears every so often! 
> 
> As a general disclaimer, I am a chemist. Not a physicist. I make no claims on knowing anything about physics. I apologize to any physicists out there who read this and go "what the hell is this girl smoking?"

_Goddammit Chicago_.

The Windy City was an unforgivable place to live, particularly in the winter. It wasn’t the snowfall that was the issue, no it was the cold. The bitter cold mixed with a biting windchill. And there was no escaping it no matter which mode of transportation you took to get to work. Unfortunately for you, being on a university campus meant you walked everywhere, so you and the wind got up close and personal.

Finally, you entered your tiny building that housed your tiny department and stood in the lobby for a moment trying to warm up. It was early in the morning, so few people were here, which is exactly how you liked it. The university was quite pleasant in the morning with nobody around. Most of the ~~zombies~~ graduate students didn’t wake up until around 10am anyway, so you and your fellow faculty members had the buildings relatively to yourselves for a few hours.

However, this meant that the radiators weren’t exactly turned on at full blast yet, and so you’d have to wait until someone from facilities management got bored enough to come over to your ~~forgotten~~ out-of-the-way building and open the valves. Such was life in the theoretical physics department. The experimentalists ( _those slimy bastards_ , you thought to yourself) got a whole brand new, state-of-the-art research building because, ya know, needing access to a synchrotron (that was a clear 30 miles away) for their research clearly necessitated the university leveling some new land and building a new facility _from scratch_. And of course, that meant that they shoved the theoretical folks in with the mathematicians because _“you guys think all day, what do you need actual lab space for?”_

The mathematicians were not happy to have physicists take over their small building. Not at all. The math department was small, but mighty and all the ten faculty members ever asked for was for their own space.

Oh well. That kind of decision making was far above your paygrade.

Having sufficiently warmed up, you trudged up the five flights of stairs to your office (the elevator was still not working, and you were fairly certain that the amount of time it took facilities to even acknowledge the problem would have been a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act—unfortunately that act didn’t exist anymore). As you approached your office, you spotted your teaching assistant, Mena, standing outside with a stack of papers in his hand.

“Good morning, Professor,” Mena mumbled, “I have those exams graded.”

You nodded sharply and led Mena into your office. “Good, come on in and let’s see them.”

You were currently teaching the advanced topics course in physics, and the topic you had set for the course was the Force. It was still a relatively new phenomenon for most Terrans. The First Order had engulfed Earth as part of its empire about ten years ago during your days as a graduate student. At the time, you were studying string theory, but once you heard of the Force, you went to your advisor and announced that you were going to switch your dissertation topic. It was a bold (and some may say, stupid) move, but one that ultimately paid off as you were the only one brave enough to try to tackle the underlying physical laws of the Force. You were one of the first to make an academic career out of it, and now your dedication was to train the next generation of Force physicists. It was a lofty goal, but you were you—you knew you could do it.

As you were reviewing the marks on the exams (they weren’t awful, but there were a few students who really struggled), Mena spoke up.

“Um, Professor?”

“Yes, Mena?”

Mena shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

“I was wondering if you would allow me the day off? Because you know, of the registration rule? I haven’t registered yet, and I figured I should get it over with.”

You sighed. Yes, you did know of this registration rule. You had to be living under a rock to have not have heard of it. It was a rule that had been enacted by the First Order at the beginning of this month. Everyone had to register their soulmark in the First Order’s database—the soulmark being the name, written on your right wrist, of your supposed “soulmate.” The First Order had been occupying Earth for ten years and they had yet to enact this rule. It was strange that they chose now to do it—or chose to do it at all.

You didn’t particularly care about the whole soulmate business. You found it silly, really. Who gave some mystical power (call it fate or the Force) the right to make decisions about who was right for you? It was stupid. Most governments, even before the First Order took over, had a database of their own where people could input their information and be matched with their soulmate—typically they had to sift through a gigantic cesspool of people with the same name, but at least it made the search somewhat easier. When you were in college, you had decided to register yourself in the world database (the name Ben Solo wasn’t particularly common, but it wasn’t exactly unique either) because _why not_? Everyone else did. Unfortunately, you didn’t find a Ben Solo who matched with you. Go figure, maybe you and this Ben Solo weren’t meant to be.

However, the discovery of extraterrestrial life and the subsequent arrival of the First Order led you to the slightly uncomfortable realization that your Ben Solo was probably still out there—and most likely not from Earth. Although you were pretty liberal, you had no idea what you would do if your supposed soulmate ended up not being human. But that was the least of your concerns with the whole soulmate lark—you just had no desire to be distracted by your work. You had no need of a soulmate, and that’s why you hadn’t registered in the galactic database.

Until the mandate. Which meant that you had to at some point before the end of the year.

Great.

You sighed and turned back to Mena.

“Yes, Mena, of course you can have the day off. Do what you need to do.”

Mena smiled gratefully.

“Thanks, Professor.”

You nodded and returned to reviewing the exams, your mind elsewhere. You knew that you only had so long until you had to register your soulmark.

You had been hiding for long enough, the universe had apparently decided. It was time for you to figure out who this mysterious Ben Solo actually was.

.

.

.

.

.

“So here we have the Schrödinger Equation for classical quantum mechanics,” you lectured, scratching out the equation on the board as your students frantically took notes, “Who remembers what the Hamiltonian operator for the one-dimensional particle-in-a-box system is?”

One of your graduate students, Jayashree, shot her hand up in the air and rattled off the answer before you could acknowledge her. Internally rolling your eyes, you gave her a sharp nod.

“Correct,” you said, writing it down, “Now here’s the million dollar question. If I take into account the Force, does this stay the same?”  
  


You were met with a bunch of blank faces, and a few people murmuring to each other trying to discern if you were basically asking them to solve an entire field of research in one question. You smirked. Really, your students should know that you always ask trick questions. They’ve been in class with you for long enough.

“Can anyone give me a guess?”

More blank stares.

_I guess not_ , you thought.

“It’s a trick question,” you said, “the answer is both yes and no.”

If it were possible, the stares got even more blank. You chuckled

“I see I’ve lost all of you,” you said, leaning on the edge of the wooden table in front of the chalkboard, “You see, a lot of you still aren’t exactly understanding what the Force is. And that’s okay—I myself still do not fully comprehend it. But I can tell you _what it isn’t_. Most of you are thinking of the Force according to the principles of classical Newtonian mechanics, wherein force equals mass times acceleration. That’s not what we have here, it’s not quite that simple.”

Some people shifted in their seats a bit, obviously confused.

“Okay,” you said, “Let’s forget about The Force for a second. Who can name for me the four fundamental forces of physics?”

Jayashree’s hand shot up again. This time, she allowed you to nod at her for permission to continue.

“Gravitational force, electromagnetic force, and the strong and weak forces, Professor.”

“Correct,” you replied, “What do these forces all have in common?”

A couple of your students blinked at you. You doubted that any of their physics professors had asked them that. This was probably getting too philosophical for them.

“The answer is that these are all fundamental forces, meaning that they are the simplest types of interactions that we know of. They can’t be reduced down to any other kind of interaction. The Force is the same thing—it’s a fundamental interaction that governs all systems, we just haven’t been made aware of it for years.”

“Wait, Professor,” one of your students called, “Does that mean all of our physics is wrong? I mean, we still have all these equations not taking into account the Force, and our society still operates without an issue.”

“Not at all,” you said, “The contribution of the Force to our understanding of physics has been negligible. Why? Because we have not yet learned to manipulate it, let alone understand it. Does anyone know how to describe the strong force within an atom?”

Everyone shook their heads.

“Exactly. We have yet to understand and control the strong force, if that is possible to do. We’ve built an entire system of understanding that does not rely on our knowledge of the strong force in order to operate. It doesn’t necessarily make our understanding _wrong_ , it just makes it _incomplete_.”

A few of your students looked rather contemplative at that. A few of your students looked mildly uncomfortable and just wanted you to write down equations so they could study them and move on. But you weren’t going to let anyone off the hook that easily...

...Except for today because your department head was now standing outside your classroom door signaling that they needed to talk to you. You nodded and turned back to your students.

“All right, I think that’s enough for today, I’m letting you go out early. Remember that you have a homework set due at the beginning of next class. I won’t accept any late submissions, so be here on time.”

And with that, your class eagerly shuffled out of the lecture hall, while you slowly put away your notes. Once your students had left, the department head, a sweet old man by the name of Garrett Bornadeo, entered.

“Afternoon, Professor. How are you doing today?” he asked.

“I’m quite well, Garrett. Just in the middle of getting to Force quantum. My students are having a quite a time wrapping their heads around it.”

Garrett gave a tight smile. He looked very stressed. Something was wrong.

“Oh I have no doubt,” he replied, “I hate to bother you with a matter this trivial, Professor, but to clarify, you have registered your soulmark, correct?”  
  


You sighed internally. Normally you enjoyed speaking with Garrett, but he had no business asking you these questions. If you hadn’t registered your soulmark (which you had), then that was a matter for the university HR department.

“Why do you ask?”

Garrett sighed, rubbing his balding head.

“I am so sorry to pry, Professor, but unfortunately, I have no choice. You see, a few First Order officers came in today asking for you. The department secretary told them you were in class, and they were about to come interrupt your lecture before I intervened.”

Oh no, the First Order wanted something with you. This couldn’t be good.

“When I asked why they needed you, they refused to tell me. It was only after more arguing that they divulged that you have a soulmate within the First Order. And that they are a very high ranking officer. They are demanding that you be brought to them...immediately.”

...What? You had only registered just yesterday! How was the turn-around time this fast? And more importantly, who did Ben Solo think he was, ordering people to bring you to him as if you were some kind of pet? Ridiculous. Your hopes that Ben would be some bored farmer on a distant planet, with as little interest in meeting you as you were in meeting him, were dashed.

“I figured that you would rather hear about it from me than the officers themselves,” Garrett continued, “Which is why I am here. I am so sorry, Professor. Unfortunately my hands are tied.”

You didn’t blame Garrett. The First Order, despite giving people the freedom to do what they wanted (for the most part), was still a military, authoritarian regime. If you didn’t do what they wanted, there was no telling where you would end up. This was not going to be good.

You never wanted to your life to be nearly this interesting, yet here you were.

“Are the officers still here?” you asked. Garrett nodded.

“They are waiting for you in your office. It is likely you don’t need to leave immediately, but I would discuss the situation with them. Your department and the university are here to support you, I just want you to know that. Whatever comes of this, we will not let you go so easily. Please rest assured of that.”

You nodded. It was a nice sentiment, but if your soulmate, whoever he was, demanded something that you do something drastic, like leave your job, you weren’t sure exactly how much power Garrett or the university had to stop him. If he was as high up in the Order as he seemed, your life was about to change very drastically. You could very well lose your job, your livelihood—everything you have worked so hard to build could be taken away in an instant....

Shakily, you took a deep breath and made your way to your office.

_One step at a time_ , you thought, _You do not know this Ben Solo. He may just be eager to meet you, let’s just wait this out and see_.

Upon entering your office, you found a small, weasel-like man and a tall stromtrooper dressed in chrome armor. The juxtaposition was so funny, and you would have laughed if you weren’t so nervous. When you opened the door, the man jumped out of his seat, almost comically.

“Ma’am,” he said, saluting you, “My name is Lieutenant Mitaka, I’m an officer aboard the First Order flagship, the _Finalizer_.”

He gestured towards his stormtrooper colleague.

“This is Captain Phasma, the head of security aboard the _Finalizer_.”

You nodded, going to sit behind your desk. No, this was _your_ office, _your_ space, _your_ place of work. These assholes had no right to barge in here and demand anything of you. If they wanted something from you, they were going to have to deal with the same Very Important Professor that everyone else had to deal with.

“A pleasure,” you said, “How can I help you both?”

Mitaka gulped and glanced over at Phasma, who said nothing and continued to stand in a corner, clearly trying to be intimidating. You weren’t sure who she was trying to intimidate—you or Mitaka.

“Ma’am, it has come to our attention that you are matched with a high ranking officer of the First Order,” Mitaka said, “We have been tasked with escorting you to him.”

How diplomatic.

“So I’ve heard,” you mumbled darkly. Mitaka looked as though he was going to faint. Why the First Order would send such a nervous Lieutenant, or even promote such a man to Lieutenant, was beyond your comprehension.

“Tell me, Lieutenant,” you began, “Exactly what gives this...high ranking official the right to send someone to barge into my place of work and demand that I meet him? Doesn’t exactly make a very good first impression, does it?”

Mitaka looked rather overwhelmed and turned to Phasma for help. At this point, the chrome trooper stepped forward from her place in the corner and addressed you.

“To be frank, ma’am, he has every right.”

No he does not, and you told her so. But Phasma was unfazed.

“You are not matched to just any officer,” she said, with an odd voice thanks to the modulator in her helmet, “You are matched to the highest official in the First Order.”

Uh....

“Ma’am, you are matched to the Supreme Leader himself.”

.

..

...

....

.....

_What?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Please let me know what you think of this premise and if this is something you'd be interested in seeing more of.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey all! Sorry it's been so long since I've updated this. I'm finally starting to get my writing mojo back. Enjoy!

You had never been on a ship before, let alone a ship that was capable of launching itself faster than the requisite eight-thousand meters per second to break the pull of gravity and enter Earth’s orbit. Despite Lieutenant Mitaka’s assurances that everything was _perfectly safe_ and that you weren’t going to die, you couldn’t help but notice that you were flying out on the anniversary of the Challenger shuttle disaster.

It gave you the creeps.

You entered the shuttle and strapped in, trying your best not to give into your strong anxiety over the situation. After all, you were about to launch yourself into space. Before the First Order came around, astronauts trained for years upon years to withstand the physical toll that space travel took on the body. You were just a professor of theoretical physics. You had no physical (heh heh) skill to speak of. As the shuttle took off, you stared out the window at the vanishing Sear’s Tower beneath you. Soon, you were going to be entering the atmosphere and the shuttle, now currently accelerating at an unfathomable pace, would face several thousand degrees of heat as it attempted to enter orbit. You closed your eyes, trying to steady your breathing.

_You’re not going to die, you’re not going to die, you’re not going to die, you’re going to die, oh shit, you’re going to die, and you were now going to have a panic attack on a shuttle with a bunch of scary soldiers, this was not---_

“Ma’am?”

A soft, yet authoritative voice jolted you out of your panicky state.

“Yes?” you breathed out, startled. You looked up to find that Captain Phasma had taken off her helmet, and was looking at you with a soft expression. You felt yourself begin to relax. You were amazed at how such a simple of gesture of allowing you to see her face made you feel so much better. The helmets were just too much.

“Ma’am, we have just exited Earth’s atmosphere, and are about to rendezvous with the _Finalizer_. Would you like to look out the viewport?”

Taking a deep breath, you unbuckled your seat belt and twisted around to get a better view out of the window. And what you saw shocked the panic out of you. You sucked in a deep breath as you watched your planet, your beautiful Earth slowly become smaller and smaller as you moved away from it. You blinked as you took in the scene in front of you—it was something you had only ever been able to witness through images from the Hubble Telescope. You had never dreamed that you would actually visit space; you’d figured that you were constantly confined to Earth, dreaming of the day that humanity finally stepped outside of its comfort zone and took its place amongst the stars.

The amount of emotions you were feeling was overwhelming. Not only were you just generally overwhelmed by your whole situation (and the fact that you were cruising through _fucking outer space_ ), you were also sad and a bit angry. The First Order had swooped in before humanity had a straight answer about if life outside of Earth was possible (well it certainly answered that question very quickly), but they took away the opportunity for humans to get to space _themselves_. To experience the comradery that came from being _Terrans_ as opposed to being _American_ or _French_ or whatever. Humanity had never had the chance to unite on its own. The First Order took that away, and you couldn’t help but feel incredibly bitter about it. Humanity had a lot of growing up to do, and it needed to do so on its own time.

Well, you supposed you couldn’t really use the word “humanity” anymore to refer to Terrans. There were humans that came from all different planets now. It was just so ridiculous to think about in such a short space of time.

Unlike a large group of people, you didn’t feel very strongly about First Order occupation. You were mostly excited about the possibility of being able to study and discover the new things that the First Order inevitably brought with them. Life hadn’t changed a whole lot in terms of the fact that Earth still hadn’t been introduced to the rest of the galaxy. The First Order had, rightfully so, recognized the amount of maturing the Terrans had to do before allowing widespread space travel. You didn’t think it would be allowed in your lifetime, but yet here you were.

As you watched your planet completely disappear from view, you felt a tap on your shoulder. Turning around, you found the nervous face of Mitaka once again.

“Ma’am, we’re approaching the _Finalizer_. We’ll be docking shortly.”

You frowned. Surely you haven’t been on this ship that long.

“How long has this ride been?” you asked.

“Approximately fifteen of your minutes, ma’am,” Captain Phasma replied, moving to reattach her helmet.

Oh right, yes, time was a relative thing. That was going to take some getting used to.

“If I may ask,” you said, wanting to think about something other than this man you were about to meet (the Supreme Leader of the entire fucking First Order, that man), “How do you measure time while in space? Or even visiting another planet?”

Lieutenant Mitaka answered. “Ma’am, if we are in orbit or close proximity to a particular planet, we will synchronize our clocks to the ones on that particular planet’s surface. The _Finalizer_ , however, normally does not orbit around planets, and time is divided into standard day cycles. We also have cycles that would be analogous to “weeks” and “months” on your planet’s calendar.” 

You nodded. There was a lot you had yet to learn about the universe, Force physics notwithstanding.

“We are about to dock in the hangar, Ma’am,” Phasma interjected, “If you need a moment to breathe before we exit the shuttle, by all means, please take it.”

As you saw the jaws of the _Finalizer_ docking bay open and give way to a vast, cavernous, white room, you decided you would definitely be taking Phasma up on her offer.

.

.

.

.

.

Kylo Ren had always been intrigued by the idea of having a soulmate, but he had long since given up on the chance of ever meeting his. When he was still a young Ben Solo, having a soulmate excited him, and like the naïve boy that he was, he eagerly awaited the day that he met the one whose name he bore on his wrist. However that dream was dashed when his parents decided to send him to train with his uncle, Luke Skywalker. Jedi weren’t supposed to have any attachments, and that included soulmates. It had been incredibly hard for Ben, having to face the reality that his family didn’t want him around, and that he would have to give up his soulmate as well.

A small part of him still hoped that maybe, just maybe, he would meet whoever this person was. For years, he had imagined several possibilities for how such an interaction might go. He figured that after his Jedi training, he could seek you out and maybe the two of you could at least be friends. There were plenty of soulmates who chose to remain platonic and those friendships were some of the strongest that Ben had ever seen. But unfortunately, that never happened. Once he left to train with Snoke, that had been that.

Kylo Ren was no longer that naïve boy. Not only had he actively given up on the possibility of having a soulmate, he didn’t want one. Your name on his wrist was the last thing that tied him to his past—that tied him to Ben Solo. He couldn’t get rid of it (he had tried), and so the next best option was to just try to ignore the whole thing altogether.

And everything was going fine until General Hux suggested that registration in the galactic soulmate database be made mandatory. Kylo didn’t see the point of this mandate, but Hux had spouted some shit about how it would “increase the officers’ morale to have found their soulmate, thereby making them more loyal to us, and some Resistance fighters may find their soulmates within the First Order...” and blah blah blah. Kylo didn’t really care, and so long as it didn’t affect him, he let Hux do as he pleased.

Unfortunately it did affect him. Because Kylo had now found his soulmate. He had a put a special flag on the name “Ben Solo” and your name in the database in case you ever decided to register. But you hadn’t done so over the years, or perhaps (Kylo’s personal hope) you didn’t belong to a First Order planet. Or you just weren’t even in the same galaxy.

However, the flag on his old name had tripped yesterday, signaling that his soulmate existed. And not only that, she lived on an ass-backward planet like Earth.

Kylo had not been looking forward to meeting you, frankly. All you would become was a distraction, and he had absolutely no time for that. The fact that you had registered so late in the game and only after the mandate gave him hope that perhaps you didn’t want anything to do with him. But Kylo, despite being quite a bastard, thought at the very least, you deserved to meet him before he sent you right back to Earth to continue life as you had before.

And so that is why he was standing in this hangar bay waiting for your shuttle to dock, having signaled the _Finalizer_ to change course towards Earth as soon as he found out. He had restricted the greeting party to himself, General Hux, and the minimum amount of troopers necessary. Phasma had informed him that you were nervous, and he didn’t want to spook you any further. After all, this was supposed to be a quick meeting, driven mostly by curiosity on his part to see why the Force would pick you to be his match.

He flinched, glad that nobody could see underneath his helmet. He was being awfully considerate of you. Kylo was never considerate of anybody. And he refused to believe that some romanticized ideal of “soulmates” would cause such a change in his normal behavior. But it didn’t matter. Soon enough, you would be gone, back to where you came from, and Kylo and the _Finalizer_ would be long gone—off to attend to whatever matters the First Order required.

“Are you pleased, Supreme Leader?”

Hux’s voice startled Kylo out of his thoughts. He turned to stare at Hux, his question implied.

“To finally meet your soulmate after so many years?” Hux continued.

Kylo rolled his eyes. Of all the people in the galaxy, Hux was the last person Kylo would have expected to fall for the whole soulmate nonsense. Really it was ridiculous and unbecoming of a general of his status. Hux had met his own soulmate, a fellow Terran like yourself, a few years’ prior and the two had been, well, _stupidly_ _happy_ ever since. Hux had made it his personal mission to see that Kylo met his own soulmate—Hux was convinced that having someone else in his life would stabilize Kylo’s volatile mood swings.

If Hux weren’t the most competent general in his employ, Kylo would have murdered him for that.

“Don’t get excited, General,” Kylo replied, “I am sure that once we meet each other, we will decide that each of us is better off without the other.”

Hux wrinkled his nose at Kylo’s harsh commentary.

“I hope you at least allow the poor woman to decide that for herself,” Hux said.

Kylo did not dignify that with a reply.

.

.

.

.

.

Steeling yourself, you watched as the ramp from the shuttle lowered onto the hangar bay. Lieutenant Mitaka went ahead of you, while Captain Phasma stuck by your side as you descended the ramp and into the large room. The stark whiteness of it almost blinded you and you closed your eyes for a moment to allow them to adjust.

When you opened them again, you saw two men in front of you. One of them had red hair and was dressed in a pristine First Order uniform, the insignia on his coat indicating that he must hold a very high position within the Order. The second man, who you guessed was likely the Supreme Leader (and your soulmate, Ben Solo), was very tall and dressed completely in black and had a black and red helmet covering his face.

Seriously, what was it with these people and helmets?

Nervously, you took a few steps forward with Phasma, realizing the ridiculous picture you must have made, what with your blue trench coat and beat-up messenger bag amongst the sea of pristine whiteness and order. It was very unnerving. You were used to the haphazard entropy of academia and this whole place was just too clinical.

“Professor,” the red-haired man called, “I am Armitage Hux, the Allegiant General of the First Order. I’d like to welcome you to the _Finalizer_.”

Ooh okay.

_Say something, brain._

Gulping, you straightened your posture, determined to at least present as the dignified accomplished Professor that you were (in reality, you were anything but dignified, but these people didn’t need to know that).

“Thank you. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Allegiant General,” you replied in a stronger voice than you had expected. _Yeah. That was good. Okay, now if we just keep up like this, we’ll ace this interaction in no time._

Hux gave a small smile and gestured towards his companion.

“Allow me to introduce you to the Supreme Leader of the First Order. Your soulmate.”

Oof yeah, okay, looks like you had pegged this man correctly.

So this was Ben Solo.

Okay.

You really weren’t sure what to think at the moment. You had even less of a clue of what to say. What was one supposed to say when first meeting their soulmate who just so casually happened to be the leader of an entire _fucking empire of planets_ that you had no idea existed for most of your life?

You suddenly felt very small. It was not a feeling you were accustomed to, and you didn’t like it. 

As if sensing your discomfort, the Supreme Leader stepped forward to address you.

“You are a Professor,” he stated, his voice cracked from the modulator in his helmet, “Of what?”

You blinked. That...that was certainly not the first question you were expecting of him. But at least he started with something neutral. You could work with this.

“Um...theoretical physics,” you only just barely refrained from calling him ‘sir,’ now _that_ would have been embarrassing, “I specialize in the study of the Force.”

That seemed to intrigue him. The Supreme Leader stared at you for a moment, and you couldn’t help but feel as though you had made some irreversible blunder.

“The Force,” he repeated, “I see. And what have you learned so far, Professor?”

Ah yes, the age-old, elevator speech. The ‘explain-your-entire-field-in-fifteen-seconds’ speech. You hadn’t prepared one for your colleagues let alone your _goddamn_ soulmate. But no matter, surely your wonderful social skills would get you out of this one.

Go figure.

You took a deep breath and answered.

“The Force is a remarkable and enigmatic entity,” you started, “Few of us can feel its effects, and we do not have the experimental tools to measure or study it. Yet we are aware of its existence. It is everything, yet nothing. Simultaneously light, dark, and grey. From atoms, to molecules, to cells, to tissues, and finally to life-forms, it is the only consistency—that which connects everything. It is my life’s goal to understand this phenomenon so that we may perhaps gain an understanding of our place in the universe.”

The room was silent for a moment, and you once again wondered if you had just committed some fatal error and embarrassed yourself. Really, you rarely had moments of doubt like this before. It was quite remarkable that it took being on the _Finalizer_ to reduce your brain to a puddle of insecurity.

However far from bursting into laughter, General Hux looked...well...impressed (?). Or at the very least, he seemed to have developed some new kind of respect for you. Lieutenant Mitaka was starting to look at you as though you had shat gold. You really had no idea what you had done in the span of a few minutes to garner such looks of...appreciation. You did not like it, and you honestly just wanted to march yourself right back into your office and curl up with your copy of the Feynman Lectures on Physics and forget about everyone.

The Supreme Leader...well...you really had no idea what was going on in his head. It was impossible to with that thing on his head.

“I see,” the Supreme Leader said, “So you know a great deal, then.”

Well, you didn’t know about _that_. You knew something, but still had no idea whether that something was even vaguely correct or not.

“I don’t know about that,” you said, “But I am learning.”

The Supreme Leader nodded.

“I have a few meetings left to attend this afternoon. But will you join me for dinner this evening?” He asked.

You blinked. “Of course.”

“Good. You are welcome to stay the night on the _Finalizer_. Phasma will show you to your temporary quarters. Of course, you are welcome to return to the surface afterwards, if you wish.”

You thought for a moment. This was your first time in space, on an actual space ship. You had no idea when/if you’d be on one again, and you weren’t going to pass up the opportunity to explore.

“I think I’d like to stay the evening, if that is all right? I will have to return in the morning, to teach my class.”

“Of course,” he said, “Phasma, please show the Professor where she will be staying. I will meet you for dinner shortly.”

And with that, the Supreme Leader strolled off towards the hangar doors, cape billowing out behind him as though we were some kind of avenging superhero. You smiled to yourself. You really had no idea what to expect coming up here, and you honestly had little desire to meet your soulmate in the first place.

But one thing was for certain. Beyond his title of Supreme Leader, this Ben Solo was a much more interesting man than you would have thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked that! Please let me know what you think in the comments. I love reading them and hearing your thoughts. It truly makes my day <3
> 
> Hope you all are safe and staying healthy!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ooh! Another chapter already! Hope you enjoy.

Having seen the _Finalizer_ from space on your shuttle ride from Earth, you knew that the ship was large. But you really hadn’t appreciated exactly _how big_ it was. You eventually gave up on trying to memorize the route you were taking from the hangar bay to your temporary quarters. When you arrived at your quarters, Captain Phasma had informed you that you had a few hours before the Supreme Leader requested your presence for dinner. The time was yours to do with as you pleased, but she had warned you not to interfere with anyone’s work and to stay away from the bridge.

As if you would be able to find the bridge on this massive hunk of metal.

Phasma had, thankfully, given you a map of the ship, so you’d be able to find your way around. She had handed you a ‘holopad’ (as it was called), and when you pressed the screen, a 3D map of the ship projected itself out of the screen. A little red dot indicated where you were and the rest of the map was labeled with sections of the ship that you were allowed to visit. You decided that your first stop would be the closest recreational center. Although you weren’t necessarily eager to meet the rest of the crew of the _Finalizer_ , you couldn’t help but notice that the rec centers had large viewports. Perhaps you could order some light appetizers and stare out at the stars. You could even take the grant you needed to work on and write it there. It would certainly be much more interesting to look out at the stars while writing than to stay here in these rather bland quarters.

Having settled on your plan, you went to the bathroom (or refresher, as Phasma had called it) to freshen up, then you packed up your messenger bag with your laptop, and strode off in the general direction of the rec center having checked the map once more.

It wasn’t until about twenty minutes later that you realized exactly what a massive mistake you had made.

You had no clue where you were going. You were directionally-challenged on a decent day, but given the rather overwhelming and stressful events of today, you had absolutely no idea how to even get back to your quarters, let alone to the rec center to get some work done.

You made one more turn before finding yourself at a dead end. There were doors on either side of the hallway you were in, each with a name placard identifying who lived there.

So you were one of the residential parts of the ship. Sighing, you checked the map once more and found that you were absolutely nowhere close to the rec center. In fact, you had headed in the complete _opposite_ direction. Go figure.

You slinked down the wall until you were finally sitting on the ground. Thankfully there was nobody around, and it didn’t look as though anyone would be passing this way for quite some time. It was still the middle of the work day for them after all. Groaning, you covered your head with your arms, allowing the days’ events to finally catch up with you. Just a few hours ago, you were safely ensconced in the hallways of your university, on your lovely planet, just minding your own business and doing whatever it was you were doing. And then the First Order, and it’s Supreme Leader (your fucking _soulmate_ ), had decided to come and increase the number of possible microstates you could occupy.

That is, they decided to make your life even more chaotic than it really needed to be. Entropy equals Boltzmann’s constant times the natural logarithm of omega, and all that good stuff.

If the Force somehow ended up mucking up the basic laws of thermodynamics, you would have a conniption fit.

Oh dear, and there lies the start of a panic attack...perhaps? Maybe? You really weren’t all that sure. All you knew is that your breathing was becoming shallower, and your palms sweaty. Taking a deep breath you began to recite your favorite equations in the hopes that thinking might help to calm you down.

∇ ∙ E = ρ/ε

∇ ∙ B = 0

∇ x E = ∂ B/∂ t

Wait...there was something wrong with that last one....Oh you were missing a negative sign. Damn, you couldn’t even recite the classical Maxwell Equations properly. What good were you, an accomplished physics professor, who were now sitting on the floor in a panic unable to recite even the most basic, fundamental concepts of electromagnetism...?

“Are you okay?”

The soft voice jolted you out of your mental spiral, and slowly, you uncocooned yourself from behind your arms to stare up at whomever had spoken. In front of you was a woman, dressed in all black, like your dearest Supreme Leader. Except she wore no helmet. She had brown skin, long black hair pulled into a tight braid, and she had some kind of metal rod/hilt thing strapped onto her belt. You stared back at her for a moment, and she frowned, repeating her question.

You blinked.

“Uh...I—I don’t know,” you replied truthfully. The woman’s frown deepened.

“You don’t look like part of the crew,” she said, “Are you the guest of an officer?”

“In a manner of speaking.”

The woman furrowed her eyebrows, clearly confused.

“Do you know where you’re supposed to be? Perhaps I can direct you if you are lost,” she offered.

This whole situation was just embarrassing. You’d had enough of exploring for now, you just needed some time alone to get used to this whole situation.

.

..

...

....

No, you were a strong, badass professor of theoretical physics. You’d faced the awful abuses of academia, been chewed up and spit out multiple times. You were not going to let this situation get the best of you. Taking a deep breath, you rubbed your face and stood up from the floor. Steeling yourself, you put on the most neutral face you could muster and addressed the woman properly.

“If you could point me in the direction of nearest recreational center, or perhaps a library where I could get some work done, I would be most appreciative.”

The woman raised an eyebrow, clearly taken aback by the sudden change in your demeanor.

“There are no libraries on the _Finalizer_. If you are seeking a space to work quietly, the recreational center is an unideal location. It’s noisy and full of characters that...well...won’t leave someone like you alone. You’re better off finding some empty conference room. Or perhaps even heading back to your quarters, if you have them.”

You sighed. Well, so much for that plan.

“Well then, maybe you could point me in the direction of my quarters? I’d be most grateful,” you replied.

“Sure. Do you know the code number of your rooms?”

You nodded. Thankfully you had committed that to memory.

“AA-708.”

The woman’s eyes grew wide.

“You’re in wing AA?” she asked.

“I—suppose so.”

She let out a breath of surprise. “You must be a guest of one of the generals then. Which one is it, if you don’t mind me asking?”

Technically, you were a guest of the Supreme Leader, but you weren’t sure if you were supposed to keep that quiet or not. Either way, it was really none of this woman’s business.

“I don’t really think I’m at liberty to say...” you trailed off. The woman nodded.

“I see. Don’t worry about it. Here, at least let me point you in the right direction. I have a meeting near that wing of the ship, so you’re on my way.”

Perfect.

“Thank you, Ms.--?” you asked, walking beside her.

“My name is Zafra Ren. Most of the crew call me Lady Ren.”

She must be someone very important then. Perhaps this was General Hux’s wife? She certainly looked and talked as though she could be from Earth. Everything around here was just strange.

“Are you royalty? Or the wife of one of the generals?” you asked. At that, Zafra threw her head back and laughed.

“Oh _stars no_ ,” she chuckled, “And thank the Maker for that. I would make a terrible princess. _Absolutely_ terrible. I have too much of a ‘stab first, ask questions later’ mentality.”

Uh. Ok.

“I’m a Knight of Ren,” she continued. You frowned.

“Knight of Ren?” you questioned. Zara chuckled once more.

“Oh I see, you’re new to _Finalizer_ aren’t you? Well no matter. The Knights of Ren are the personal guard of the Supreme Leader.”

Uh—

Oh.

Well then.

You supposed it made sense that the Supreme Leader would have a personal guard, but you never _really_ considered that possibility. In fact, there was a lot you had just not considered yet. Your soulmate was clearly going to be a difficult man to handle, and in more ways than one.

The two of you continued on in relative silence for a few moments before you decided to speak up. Perhaps this woman could give you some kind of clue as to who your soulmate was as a person. She must see a lot of him, after all.

“So, how long have you served as member of the Supreme Leader’s guard?”

“Oh, about four years,” Zafra replied.

“How have you found the position?” you asked, hoping to keep it as neutral as possible.

“It’s certainly one of the most exciting positions I have held,” Zafra replied, “Life with the Supreme Leader is never boring. Always something going on.”

Well that was—

Vague.

If you wanted information on the Supreme Leader, it looks like you were just going to have to ask him yourself. Nobody on this ship was going to be forthcoming about anything. Before you could ask her anything further, Zafra stopped walking.

“Well, here we are. If you make a left up ahead, your quarters should be in that hallway. This is unfortunately where I have to leave you.”

You thanked her profusely, and before you could walk away, she placed a hand on your shoulder.

“I’m afraid I did not catch your name. How terribly rude of me,” Zafra said.

You gave her your name, and she repeated it slowly, as if getting used to the pronunciation. You hadn’t stopped to think about how strange Earth names must be to these people.

“And what is it that you do?” Zafra asked.

“I’m physics professor back on Earth,” you replied. Zafra beamed.

“Ah! An intelligent woman for an equally intelligent man. I’m sure the Supreme Leader is going to like you very much.” And with that enigmatic thought, Zafra bounded off in a different direction leaving you incredibly confused and slightly concerned.

How in the hell did she know who you were?

.

.

.

.

.

Kylo Ren was having a difficult time paying attention in his meetings. In the span of just a few short hours, he had gone from being completely disinterested in his soulmate to eagerly wanting to have dinner with her. It was a very strange, and rather abrupt, change in attitude. He wasn’t sure what exactly triggered it. He remembered standing in the bay next to Hux waiting for you to exit the shuttle. At the time, he figured he would have a perfunctory dinner with you, and then he would send you on your way.

He hadn’t expected you to be so beautiful, and so _interesting_. He’d known that you were intelligent. One did not become professor of physics without being smart. But while you had the mind of a scientist, you also had the heart of a philosopher. The way you had spoken about the Force had been so eloquent. He had expected a clinical, matter-of-fact description grounded in empirical data and mathematical equations. He hadn’t expected you to see the beauty of the Force and the power of its existence, beyond the empirical.

Setting aside your perspectives about something he knew so intimately, Kylo had found you to be an intriguing person in general. You were full of contradictions. You presented such a confident persona, yet when one dug deeper, they found a myriad of insecurities caused by Force knows what. You hadn’t seemed afraid of him when you first saw him—more, unsettled by the fact that he wore a helmet. He did feel a little bad about that, but he rarely took the helmet off for security reasons. You had a right to see his face, he knew that. He would take it off at dinner.

“Supreme Leader, sir?”

Kylo snapped out of his stupor and turned to stare at the man who had spoken, General Enric Pryde.

“Yes, General?” he asked.

“I was wondering if I may ask how long we will remain in orbit around Earth?” Pryde asked.

Kylo hated Pryde. Pryde had served the Emperor alongside his grandfather, Darth Vader. Pryde held an incredibly negative opinion of Vader, and no doubt he held the same opinion of Kylo himself. Kylo desperately wanted to get rid of him, but Hux, ever the voice of reason, had intervened saying that Pryde’s knowledge of running an empire would be invaluable to the First Order. Kylo didn’t have to like him, but he did have to put up with him, and as Supreme Leader, he had the absolute authority to demote Pryde from Allegiant General and give that position to Hux. Kylo may butt heads with Hux more often than not, but out of all of the members of the High Council, Kylo trusted Hux the most. Which is why Hux (and Phasma) were the only ones who knew of Ren’s true reason for coming to Earth.

“You may not, _General_ ,” Kylo sneered, he never passed up an opportunity to remind Pryde that he had been demoted, “We will leave Earth’s orbit when I have finished my business here and not a second earlier. Have I made myself clear?”

Pryde pursed his lips, but kept his commentary to himself.

“Of course, Supreme Leader. My apologies.”

The room was silent for a moment before Hux spoke up.

“I’d like to request to adjourn the Council meeting for today. The Supreme Leader has a few matters that require his most immediate attention.”

Thank the Maker for Hux. He possessed what Kylo lacked in social graces, and was able to smooth over ruffled feathers like a master. If it weren’t for Hux and his quicksilver tongue, Kylo would have had several mutinies on his hands by now.

“The Allegiant General is correct,” Kylo boomed, “I have urgent matters to attend to. This meeting is over. You are all dismissed.” And with that, Kylo stood up from his chair and exited the room with a flourish. Just as he was turning the corridor to head to his quarters, Kylo bumped into Zafra Ren.

“Zafra,” he said, “I trust your mission was successful.”

Zafra smiled.

“Oh yes, she wasn’t hard to find. Had gotten horribly lost, poor thing. But she thinks very loudly, so all I had to do was follow the sound of her thoughts.”

Kylo sighed.

“I see. Was she all right?”

It was Zafra’s turn to sigh.

“As all right as someone whose world has been so abruptly turned inside out can be, Master. She was on the verge of a panic attack when I found her. She is interested in meeting you now, but I don’t think she cared for the whole soulmate business in the first place. She’s quite overwhelmed.”

Well, that made two of them at least.

“Did she say anything?” Kylo asked. Zafra shrugged.

“Not really, it’s more of what she _didn’t_ say. She’s concerned that you will snatch her away from her planet and her job and that there is nothing she can do about it.”

Kylo may have been a monster in many ways, but he certainly wouldn’t do anything to you against your will. And as intrigued as he was by you, he was still inclined to leave you to your own devices on Earth and never darken your doorstep with his presence again. Knowing that you also did not want the distraction of a soulmate would make that decision easier to deal with. But still, he owed you dinner. He wouldn’t renege on that.

“Thank you, Zafra. Continue keeping an eye on her while she remains on the _Finalizer_. I’ll let her know that I shall meet her in half an hour.”

Zafra nodded. “Good luck, Master.”

Kylo knew that he was going to need it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bonus points if you guys can name the equation you messed up :) 
> 
> Putting in those equations was fun, I had to figure out HTML. Lol. What a process. As always let me know what you think! I have been having such a blast reading your comments and thoughts!


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